Rick Perry's War on Religion Ad Is a Meme Monster

It was a campaign ad hand-tailored for the Republican base but Rick Perry's 30-second spot decrying "Obama's war on religion," is fueling a new genre of mashups and parodies for the Internet. With its dude ranch attire, keyboard symphonics and Don't Ask, Don't Tell advocacy, it's the kind of target-rich fodder for the web's meme artists. And that's without mentioning the ad's central rhetorical flourish, which is just snappy enough to reformulate in a dozen-odd ways: "There’s something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military but our kids can’t openly celebrate Christmas or pray in school.” Enter the meme monster:

MSNBC's Rachel Maddow fired off her first Brokeback Mountain quips last night, remarking on the similarities between his jacket and Heath Ledger's jacket from the "heartwarming gay cowboy movie." The cable news doyenne hailed it as "the best meme on Twitter in at least a week."

The Tumblr Rick Perry's Unpopular Opinions was all over the latest ad, fashioning a slew of GIFs featuring Perry uttering a range of low-brow heresies. These are our two favorites:

And then there are the video parodies, which include big fish comedy institutions like Funny or Die and National Lampoon, and grassroots comics like this rabbi from Michigan: " I'm not ashamed to say that I'm a Jew... but you﻿ don't need to be in shul on every Shabbos to know there's something wrong in our country when gays can serve openly in the military and yet they still can't get married legally in most U.S. States."